Double wall container



May 13, N69 8. EDWARDS 3,

DOUBLE WALL CONTAINER Filed Jan. 18, 1968 United States Patent 3,443,715DOUBLE WALL CONTAINER Bryant Edwards, Oak Park, Ill., assignor toIllinois Tool Works Inc.. Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware FiledJan. 18, 1968, Ser. No. 698,879 Int. Cl. B65d 25/18, 21/00, 7/42 US. Cl.220-9 10 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relatesto a novel container or cup, and more specifically to a novel doublewall insulated cup.

An important object of the present invention is to provide a noveldouble wall insulating cup having inner and outer rib or flute meansconstructed for enhancing the msulating qualities of the cup and alsoconstructed for rendering a plurality of the cups selfaligning whenplaced 1n a stack so as to promote uniform nesting in a compact manner.

A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a novelcontainer or cup of the above described type formed from thin plastic orother suitable material and having generally vertically extending ribsor flutes arranged for defining insulating air spaces between inner andouter walls of the cup and also so that external ribs on one cup areadapted to cooperate with internal ribs on an adjacent cup in a stack sothat the cups automatically align with each other for permitting compactnesting.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following description and the accompanying drawingswherein:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view showing the container or cup incorporatingfeatures of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken generally alongline 22 in FIG. 1 and further showing in broken lines, the manner inwhich a second cup is adapted to nest within the first cup;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken along line 33 inFIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional View taken along line 44 inFIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view similar to FIG. 2, but shows amodified form of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of a container or cup structureembodying another modified form of the present invention.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings wherein like parts aredesignated by the same numerals throughout the various figures, acontainer or cup 10 incorporating features of the present invention isshown in FIGS. 1-4 and comprises an inner cup member 12 and an outer cupmember 14. These cup members are preferably formed from a suitablematerial such as plastic in one piece and without seams. For example, ahigh impact polystyrene plastic material has been found to be especiallysuitable.

The cup member 12 has a side wall 16, preferably of inverted generallyfrusto-conical configuration. A lower margin of the side wall mergeswith a transverse bottom wall 18. The outer cup member has a similarside wall "ice 20 and a bottom member 22 which is preferably spaced fromthe inner bottom wall 18 so as to define an insulating air space 24therebetween. Upper margins 26 and 28 of the inner and outer side wallsare rolled together to form an upper end rim 30 which secures the innerand outer cup members together.

In this embodiment, the cup or container 10 has a portion or area 32intermediate upper and lower marginal portions of the side walls andproviding a primary gripping section which is to be engaged by the handof a user. In order to insulate the outer surface of the cup from theinterior and thereby protect the hand of the user, the outer wall isformed with inwardly projecting flutes 34 separated by ribs 36, whichribs extend substantially axially the length of the portion 32. Inaddition, the inner cup member wall is formed with flutes 3-8 separatedby ribs 40. In this embodiment the inner and outer flutes and ribs arealigned with each other so as to define insulating air spaces 42 and 44therebetween. With this construction, the container or cup is wellinsulated entirely around its periphery and the ribs 36 present broadsmooth surfaces which may be comfortably grasped in the hand of a user.In most instances, the users hand will engage only the ribs 36 since theouter surfaces of the flutes 34 have a circumferential extent similar tothe ribs and the flutes are, however, slightly wider than the ribs topermit nesting of stacked cups as described below and shown in brokenlines in FIG. 2.

In this embodiment, the inner and outer walls are formed with annularwall sections 43 and 45 at the lower margin of the gripping portion andmerging with inwardly projecting shoulders or annular shelf sections 46and 48. These sections respectively merge with inner and outer lower endwall sections 50 and 52. In accordance with a feature of the presentinvention, the outer lower end wall section 52 is formed with flutes 54and ribs 56 having a substantially V-shaped configuration as shown bestin FIG. 4 and the inner lower end wall section is formed with somewhatsimilar flutes and ribs 58 and 60. The ribs and flutes nest within eachother as shown in FIG. 4, but it is to be noted that the outer ribs 56have a sharper V-shaped configuration than the inner ribs 60'. In otherwords, the included angle between the sides of the ribs 56 is less thanthe included angle between the sides of the ribs 60. Thus, the ribs 56have crest portions which project substantially radially outwardly fromcrest portions of the ribs 60 so as to define insulating air spaces 62therebetween. Engagement between ribs 56 and 60' also serves to orientthe inner and outer members relative to each other so as to obtain thedesired relationship between ribs 36 and 40. Furthermore, when aplurality of the cups are stacked, the crests of the outer ribs 56 ofone cup are adapted to project into and nest within the V- shapedgrooves at the inner sides of the ribs 60 of an immediately adjacent cupas shown in broken lines in FIG. 4. Thus, a plurality of cups may bestacked or nested together in a relatively compact manner.

As previously indicated, the V-shaped configuration of the outer ribs 56is relatively sharp. This coupled with the relatively wide groovesprovided by the flatter inner ribs 60 facilitates entry of the outerribs into the inner ribs during stacking or, in other words, aids inrendering the cups self-aligning. In addition, the construction of theinner ribs 60 is such that the grooves provided thereby have relativelywide and flaring mouths 64 as shown in FIG. 3. These months are inalignment with the grooves provided by the ribs 40 in the grippingportion of the container. Therefore when one cup is inserted withinanother during a stacking operation, preliminary alignment between thecups may first be obtained by engagement of at least a portion of theribs 56 within the grooves defined by the ribs 40 and final alignmentwill be obtained as these ribs pass downwardly through the mouths 64 andenter into the grooves defined by the ribs 60.

Referring now to FIG. 5, there is shown a slightly modified form of thepresent invention. The structure of this embodiment is substantially thesame as that described above as indicated by the application ofidentical reference numerals with the suflix a added to thecorresponding elements except that the outer and inner ribs 36a and 40aare circumferentially offset from each other. In other words, in thefirst embodiment, the ribs 36 and 40 are in alignment with each otherwith the generally radially extending wall portions of these ribs insubstan tial alignment. However, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, theinner ribs 40a are in alignment with and abut the surfaces of the flutes34a. This arrangement increases the width of the insulating air pockets44a.

FIG. 6 shows a further modification of the present invention whereinelements corresponding to those described above are indicated by thesame reference numerals with the suffix b added. In this embodiment theV-shaped outer and inner ribs 56b and 60b extend all the way from thebottom of the cup upwardly across the gripping portion to pointsadjacent the upper margin of the cup. It is understood that the ribs 56band 60b have the same cross-sectional configuration and inter-fit witheach other in the same manner as the corresponding ribs shown in FIG. 4.

The invention is claimed as follows:

1. A double wall container including an inner member and an outermember, said members respectively including inner and outer downwardlyconverging peripheral side walls and inner and outer bottom walls, saidinner and outer side walls respectively including a plurality ofcircumferentially spaced axially extending and radially outwardlyprojecting ribs having outwardly facing crests and defining radiallyinwardly facing grooves, said outer sidewall rib crests being spacedfrom the inner side wall and defining insulating air chambers, saidoutwardly facing crests of the outer sidewall ribs being narrower thanthe inwardly facing grooves of said inner sidewall ribs for enabling aplurality of said containers to be stacked together with said outersidewall ribs of one container nesting within the inner sidewall ribs ofa like container.

2. A container, as defined in claim 1, wherein said outer sidewall ribshave a generally V-shaped transverse crosssectional configuration.

3. A container, as defined in claim 2, wherein said inner sidewall ribshave a V-shaped transverse cross-sectional configuration with anincluded angle greater than the included angle of the V-shapedcross-sectional configuration of the outer sidewall ribs, the crests ofthe inner sidewall ribs projecting into said outer sidewall ribs.

4. A container, as defined in claim 3, wherein said inner membercomprises an annular wall section "around upper ends of its ribs and thegrooves defined thereby, said inner sidewall ribs including divergingupper end portions merging with said wall section and providing saidlast mentioned grooves with flaring mouths at upper ends thereof forfacilitating alignment of a plurality of like containers during stackingof such containers.

5. A container, as defined in claim 3, wherein said ribs traverse lowerend portions of said inner and outer side walls.

6. A container, as defined in claim 5, wherein said ribs extend fromsaid lower end portions upwardly substantially to upper margins of saidinner and outer side walls.

7. A container, as defined in claim 1, wherein said crests of said ribshave a width circumferentially of the container substantially greaterthan the radial extent of said ribs, said ribs being spaced from eachother circumferentially of the container by axially extending wallsections having a circumferential extent similar to the circumferentialextent of the crests.

8. A container, as defined in claim 7, wherein the circumferentialextent of the inner sidewall rib crests is greater than thecircumferential extent of the outer sidewall rib crests, said innersidewall ribs being disposed in substantial radial alignment with saidouter sidewall ribs.

9. A container, as defined in claim 7, wherein said inner rib crests arewider than said outer sidewall rib crests, said inner sidewall ribcrests being disposed in radial alignment with and abutting said axiallyextending sections circumferentially spacing said outer sidewall ribs.

10. A container, as defined in claim 7, wherein said inner and outersidewall ribs traverse intermediate grip ping portions of said sidewalls and terminate at upper margins of inner and outer lower endportions of said side walls, said inner and outer lower end portionsrespectively including a plurality of additional circumferentiallyspaced axially extending and radially outwardly projecting ribs havingradially outwardly facing crests and defining inwardly facing grooves,said additional ribs having substantially V-shaped cross-sectionalconfigurations for maintaining alignment of said inner and outer membersduring assembly thereof and for promoting selfalignment of a pluralityof such containers when the containers are stacked together.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 411,096 9/1889 Eaton et al 220103,079,027 2/1963 Edwards. 3,082,900 3/1963 Goodman 220l5 3,194,4687/1965 Baron.

JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner.

JAMES R. GARRETT, Assistant Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R. 220-97, 72, 83 i

